The world renowned WRV Model Search was held each Wednesday in August at LunaSea in Virginia Beach. Local beauties competed for a modeling contract with Virginia Beach's premiere Surfing and Clothing company!

WRV featured three weeks of preliminaries culminating with a Final Round on August 22nd. Catch the girls in our 2019 Calendar!

Competitors relished in the fun conditions offering, high-performance sections that were not left to waste as both men and women's finals day draws are locked in after an incredible day finished men's Round 2 and 3, as well as women's Round 2.

A video recap of the WRV skateboard team trip to Jacksonville, Florida. Don't miss the 36-page D.I.Y. Zine featuring over 80 photographs from the trip and articles about what went down. Video and Zine created by Tyler Brady.

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https://www.waveridingvehicles.com/blogs/news/legends-of-the-sandbar2018-04-05T11:07:00-04:002018-05-02T11:11:46-04:00LEGENDS OF THE SANDBARCarley Shaw

For fans of the Outer Banks of North Carolina - local or otherwise- this book is a must! An impressive compilation of photography and compelling local knowledge by author and photographer Christopher Bickford's, Legends of the Sandbar is a book that captures the essence of the surfing world in the outer banks:

Legends of the Sandbar is a photographic tribute to a stormy outpost in the mid-Atlantic and the surfers who make it their home. It is about a tight-knit band of men and women who sacrifice the stability and comfort of life in mainland America purely to indulge their passion for wave-riding. The project is a celebration of nature, community, landscape, the raw beauty of lives lived close to the edge, and the kinetic artistry of surfing in a challenging aquatic environment.

Legends of the Sandbar eschews the the glossy, tack-sharp color style of traditional surf photography in favor of a gritty texture and an ethereal mood more appropriate to its subject.

The book features WRV ambassadors like Jesse Fernandez, David Rohde, Redman, and Sterling King. Copies are available while supplies last at WRV Va Beach and Kitty Hawk.

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https://www.waveridingvehicles.com/blogs/news/wrv-outer-banks-pro-presented-by-pacifico-photo-gallery2017-10-27T13:11:00-04:002017-10-27T13:13:31-04:00WRV Outer Banks Pro presented by Pacifico Photo GalleryBrendan Petticrew
A few more gems from the archives.

The WRV Outer Banks Pro QS1,000 presented by Pacifico witnessed an Outer Banks dream during the second day of competition. Everyone in attendance deemed it the best day ever for an East Coast event and it lasted from first light until the sun faded to darkness.

For the first time since its launch, an international competitor won the WRV Outer Banks Pro Qualifying Series (QS) 1,000, and Gabriel Farias, one of Brazil's many rising stars, was the one to do it.

Two-to-four foot swell streamed through the lineup to provide competitors plenty of scoring opportunity all day. And despite increasing winds scrambling the lineup, Farias put on a great display of surfing in the later rounds to emerge victorious.

WRV and ESA present the 50 Year Anniversary Party powered by Zero's Subs, the Surfrider Foundation, and Sweetwater Brewing Company. Come enjoy the sounds of Snake Mountain Revival and watch the South to Sian movie premiere. Free beverages, Zero's subs, and discounts for late night shoppers!

I know that must sound odd to most men, but women store events like this in their memory. Prom dresses and deals on designer clothing can also be added to this fashion file of nostalgic events.

My first bikini was emerald green with a jeweled brooch in the center of the bandeau top. I sported it at my favorite beach spot at 76th street and at the East Coast Surfing Championships.

It was extra stylish because it came from WRV. I was recently told by L.G. Shaw, general manager of WRV, that Beyonce bought a few bikinis from the surf shop when she was recording at a local studio. Wow! This may be the only time Beyonce and I can say we shop at the same place.

Shaw said he helped Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam in his Hawaii store, too.

As a Virginia Beach local, I remember doodling the cool WRV logo on my notebook during class. From an artist’s perspective, I always loved the simplicity and design of the iconic logo.

I assumed the logo was created by a local artistic surfer, but it was designed on Madison Avenue in New York by an ad agency.

These are just a few cool facts about WRV, which opened first in 1967 as a surfboard business and later moved to Norfolk Avenue to open its first retail store. In 1986, WRV expanded to a larger retail store on Cypress and 19th Street. Because the store is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, I’ve listed a few fun facts that you may or may not know:

When he's not tending to massive tankers on the high seas, WRV Team rider and humble Outer Banks stand-out Erik Schub is busy shredding. Thats why he has his own WRV board model, the Schubfish. We picked his brain for your reading pleasure.

The best thing about the Schubfish to me is the versatility. My last trip to Mexico, it was the only board I rode. I swapped fins for different conditions, but it handled a wide variety of waves and wave size unbelievably well.

Muy bien.

The Schubfish came about a couple years ago when Jesse [Fernandez] invited me over to check out a design on his computer. I had a very rough idea about what it is I wanted the outline to look like. Jesse has the knowledge and experience to fill in all the blanks I left out. Having the computer open to see the shape in 3-D has so many advantages. With the click of a button you can look at every angle in every specific way possible. Within a few hours we came up with the shape that is out today. Some minor tweaks have come from its inception, but for the most part what you see today is what took place that first time drawing up the dimensions for the first board.

I currently ride a 5'7" x 19.5" x 2.5", 29 L. There's a lot of board in a small package. Thats what allows me to catch waves so easily. Its light enough to throw around though.

I had a memorable midday session down on Pea Island this spring. The day before was really good as well. I surfed probably 6+ hours the day before and was spent for the dawn patrol. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As I showed up, it was pretty crowded but looking really fun. Head high, some plus sets, offshore, with warming water. It was my second session out of booties. Always a good feeling shedding layers.

The word on the beach was that it was way better earlier, but the crowd made it tough to sniff out the good ones. As I paddled out all but three or so people stayed on the peak. The tide was at peak high as I paddled out and you could tell it was too much water for the spot. So within the hour enough water had cleared out, the crowd remained minimal, and these perfect peaks were consistently hitting a knuckle of sand 75 feet off the beach. Barrels, turns, airs, anything you wanted to do was out there and wide open.

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https://www.waveridingvehicles.com/blogs/news/chiba-chiba-yall2017-07-14T16:45:00-04:002017-07-14T17:57:50-04:00WRV IN THE LAND OF THE RISING SUNCarley Shaw

WRV's newest location is nestled in the heart of Japan's surfing community, Chiba, about an hour south east of the dense hustle and bustle of Tokyo. In 2020 Chiba will host the Olympics of surfing at Shidashita Beach.

Shidashita is a beach break featuring several jetties that create consistent sandbars.

The WRV Chiba location features a an on-site shaping bay where WRV Ambassador and shaper Macoto Kurihara builds his hand crafted boards from start to finish. Macoto, or MA, has shaped an estimated 1550 quality wave riding crafts.

How did WRV make the leap from east coast of the U.S. to the east coast of Japan? Not surprisingly by way of the Pacific. It was on North Shore Oahu two years ago, at WRV Haleiwa, where Macoto made the connection that initiated the latest link to the land of the rising sun.

Q. How did you first hear of WRV?A. It was a Surf NRG surfing video I saw over 20 years ago when I first learned about the existence of WRV. There were a lot of waves and surfers from the East Coast I didn't know. At that time, I saw the WRV surfboard for the first time.

Q. What led you to become a shaper?A. I have been surfing since I was a kid. I was a competition surfer but I was hurt at the age of 18, and I could not surf for a while. The injury recovered but I couldn't do competitions. Then I started shaping surfboards when I was 20 years old. My shaping is all self taught and it was John Carper's Shaping 101 [video] that I referrenced.

Q. What or who are your influences?A. Surfing, my wife and WRV are big influences in my life.

Q. How is your shaping influenced by your location?A. Chiba's waves are like the East Coast of USA. I shape designs that can demonstrate good performance even in small waves with no power.

Q. Are there any new technologies you are integrating into your shapes?A. I'm trying now on EPS boards and various fin position boards. And I scan the board on the computer so that I can faithfully reproduce it in USA.

WRV is part of the 1st Annual Trace Up Shop Showdown. Five of the top surf shops in the US pick 3 employees each to compete in a digital contest throughout the month of April. Contestants can surf anywhere they want, whenever they want. Any break, any waves they choose. Trace is the judge. Real-time leaderboards at traceup.com show all their data collected by Trace and where they stack up. Shops will be scored as teams and at the end of the month, prizes will be awarded for the leaders in each category: Longest Wave, Max Speed, Most Waves Caught, Most Turns, and Best Video.

The Wave Riding Vehicles Outer Banks Pro found its home in 2009 with the completion of the new Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head. The pier’s stellar views and its ample parking both add to what has become the most core surf contest on the east coast. Its eco-conscious design supports ocean ecosystem conservation and awareness.

Typically held the last weekend in August, the WRV Outer Banks Pro is an official WSL Men's Qualifier Event drawing top rated surfers from around the globe to the unique coastline of Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Feb 4, 2017

VIRGINIA BEACH

L.G. Shaw straightened up the corner of the framed painting on a wall upstairs in Wave Riding Vehicles' surf shop. It was a picture of WRV’s old retail shop, several blocks south, on Norfolk Avenue.

L.G., now 34, was just a kid when his parents ran the store there. But he remembers it. So does his younger sister.

The low shelf of the sticker case was the perfect height to play store.

“I would be the customer; he would be the salesman,” Carley Shaw, 32, said.

The Shaw family has been looking back at the old days lately – with the company celebrating 50 years. WRV has grown into an internationally known brand in the surfing community with strong local retail success.

In 1967, a group of Virginia Beach men started a surfboard-building business in a cinder block building on 19th Street. Several years later, they decided to sell.

Les Shaw and Bill Frierson, two locals who had been building surfboards for WRV, bought the business.

The WRV moniker has come a long way from that board-making shop in 1967. It’s now the largest surfboard manufacturer on the East Coast. With a flagship store and headquarter offices at the corner of 19th Street and Cypress Avenue, WRV pumps out its brand across multiple surf lifestyle platforms.

But in the early days, it was nothing more than a pipe dream.

“There was no guarantee it was going to work,” Shaw said.

L.G. Shaw, 34, son of WRV owner Les Shaw, straightens a photograph of the original WRV building off Norfolk Ave. in Virginia Beach.

Surfing gained a foothold in Virginia Beach in the early 1960s. The city hosted a surf carnival. Pete Smith and Bob Holland opened the beach’s first surf shop.

Les Shaw’s dad was a Navy officer. He was born in Virginia Beach, but they moved around a few times, before coming back. They landed in Hawaii when Les was a teenager. Shaw graduated from First Colonial High School.

Having learned to surf in Hawaii, Shaw could show the boys back home a thing or two.

“Surfing, it’s a great excuse to play hooky,” he said.

It actually positioned him for a successful career.

“That attraction led me to do work,” he said.

He got a job building, and ultimately selling, surfboards.

Some people brushed the idea off.

“ ‘Surfing’s a joke,’ ” he said they told him. “ ‘It’s a fad. Go get a real job.’ ”

Shaw and Frierson bought WRV from Andrew and Morris Fine several years later. They opened a surfboard store and board-shaping shop on Norfolk Avenue in a white-columned building near the train tracks.

One day, Bob McKnight of California visited the shop and asked them if they wanted to sell swim trunks. McKnight later co-founded Quiksilver. WRV started selling T-shirts, too. When girlfriends of surfers started hanging out in the shop, they started to sell bikinis.

The store didn’t have a register; they used calculators and hand-written receipts, said Joni Shaw, Les’ wife.

She remembers once loading her yellow Pinto with a booth’s worth of WRV gear to go to Florida for a trade show. And when she used to put their son, L.G., down for naps in the shaping room behind the store. And when her children played with the stickers.

A freshly printed WRV t-shirt, at the screen printing shop located in a warehouse off Birdneck Road in Virginia Beach.

By the 1980s, the surf industry was exploding and WRV’s iconic porpoise emblem was getting around.

Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger sported a WRV T-shirt in Vanity Fair magazine. In a 1985 dealer catalog, WRV offered its muscle T-shirts for $4. Screen prints included the checkered porpoise and paint-splatter patterns. Corduroy and painter hats with back flaps were in.

In 1987, WRV built and moved to a new, bigger retail store on 19th Street, where it could line up surfboards like dominoes and create departments for men’s and women’s fashions and accessories.

Les Shaw bought out Frierson in the early 1990s. Shaw’s son, L.G., now helps run the family business. His sister, Carley, is a graphic designer for WRV.

L.G. Shaw, 34, som of WRV owner Les Shaw, talks about some of the new technology in surfboard materials.

The company has survived through the years because it didn’t sell out, said L.G.

It would have been easy to hawk sand buckets or bobbleheads or Chinese surfboards to make “the quick buck,” he said.

But the Shaws went a different route and stayed relevant in the surf conversation. For many years, the company sponsored the East Coast Surfing Championships held in Virginia Beach. Before the internet, surfing magazines were where you found out who won a surfing contest on one page, and could see world-ranked Virginia Beach surfer Wes Laine riding a wave in a WRV advertisement on another page.

WRV’s surf and skateboard teams of professional athletes continue to be ambassadors for the brand. Social media, though, changed the advertising landscape for businesses like WRV.

The audience is bigger than ever before, and the goal is clear:

“Get our surfboards under their feet,” L.G. said. “We have real people who are involved in surfing and skating. Their friends and followers, kids, are seeing them surf.”

The January 2017 Surf Expo was a solid session of good vibes. The WRV EL JEFE model by Bob Yinger was nominated for the SIMA Performance Shortboard of the Year. SIMA is a program that strives to identify the surf industry’s most influential and innovative companies and recognize them for their efforts to advance and grow the industry.

Entries are reviewed and voted on by a nominating panel of experts comprised of both surf industry manufacturers and retailers. The Performance Shortboard of the Year is awarded to the model that best caters to the competition-minded customer through exciting design, appeal, and/or innovation.

The El Jefe model nomination marks the first time an East Coast Board has ever been nominated.

WRV shaper Jordan Brazie won the live Surf Expo Shape Off sponsored by US Blanks. Some pretty heavy names in the industry went head to head, demonstrating their skills by replicating an iconic surfboard from a rough blank in about two hours on-site. Brazie is the youngest competitor to ever win.

Altogether it was a great way to kick off WRV's 50th year as quality board builders. Meanwhile, the verdict is still out for winner of the Best Beard at the WRV Booth...

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https://www.waveridingvehicles.com/blogs/news/paint-the-pavement-this-saturday2016-11-11T11:32:00-05:002016-11-11T11:35:45-05:00PAINT THE PAVEMENT THIS SATURDAYCarley Shaw
Paint the Pavement at ViBe's Second Saturday, November 12th, on 19th street in front of WRV

Local artist Allison Termine of Chesapeake, VA, was selected after an open call to artists in October, during which all artists in the Commonwealth of Virginia were eligible to submit a design. A panel consisting of local business owners, a member of the Virginia Beach Public Art Committee, ViBe District non-profit members and Friends of the Creative District members selected the design which features the state bird of Virginia, on a color striped background. The artist will sketch the design onto the pavement at 19th Street and Cypress from 8am-noon on Saturday and the public is welcome to assist the artist in painting the design onto the pavement between the hours of noon and 4pm.

Artist’s Statement:“Throughout human cultures, the natural occurrence of rainbows is seen as a spiritual or mythic symbol of hope, revelation, promises, the light of the future, joyous realization and other positive meanings. For this project, I chose to pair a universally recognized symbol for unity with a geometric representation of Virginia’s state bird, a red Cardinal. The pairing will highlight the important role the that the Virginia Beach Resort and ViBe Creative District play as a place for unity and inclusion where all people are welcome and respect.

Rainbows are also widely understood as a symbol of transformation, unity, divinity, provision, blessings, spiritual light, divine guidance, inner riches, and more. Red cardinals are considered a creative force, with their vibrant red color representing vitality and creativity. It’s a perfect combination for a ViBe Creative District and the City of Virginia Beach!” -Allison Termine

Lots to do during the ViBe's 2nd Saturday:

ViBe Story Exchange This Saturday the ViBe Creative District will also host its sixth Story Exchange at Croc's 19th Street Bistro! Old Dominion University professor and professional Artist, Richard Nickel, will bring one woman's story of self-discovery and strength to life through visual art from noon-4pm. This event is FREE and open to the public. Any donations made will be given directly to the artist!

Wave Riding Vehicles WRV will participate in Second Saturday with free music, food for sale from Malbon’s BBQ – The Flying Pig food truck and access to the WRV skate park.

ParkingParking is generously donated by these local businesses and city parking lots: the grass lot behind Wave Riding Vehicles along 19th Street; the Runnymede parking lots along Cypress Avenue at 20th and 21st Streets; and the Virginia Beach Convention Center lot at 19th Street and Parks Avenue. On-street parking is now available along 18th Street west of Cypress Avenue.

Motorists who park in other lots or who block driveways do so risking tickets and towing, including the Wareing's Gym and Mary's parking lots on Cypress Avenue at 18th and 17th Streets.

Rain DateIn the event of rain, the Paint the Pavement crosswalk event will be cancelled for Nov 12 and rescheduled to the Second Saturday in December. All other activities on Nov 12 will proceed as planned indoors.

WRV Virginia Beach will host a premier of Travis Rice's new Snowboard Film produced by Red Bull. Join us Sunday October 2nd, 2016; 8:00pm-10:00pm for the highly anticipated film featuring Rice and other top snowboard talent.

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https://www.waveridingvehicles.com/blogs/news/california-locos-skate-festival-12016-08-12T09:18:00-04:002016-08-12T11:28:33-04:00CALIFORNIA LOCOS SKATE FESTIVALCarley Shaw
Join us at WRV Virginia Beach this Saturday for a California Loco's skate jam and pregame! Meet some of the artist and show us what you've got for your chance to win some free skate boards from Duster! Then roll on down to Studio 17 for the East Coast for premier of the California Loco's exhibit.

It's that time of year again. Suns out buns out for the WRV Model Search! Show your appreciation for bikinis and beautiful women at LunaSea each Wednesday night throughout August. Enjoy free give-aways, drink specials, and much more! Select winners will be featured in the WRV 2017 Calendar.